It’s not often that I see a new book about natural history and immediately order it, but I did with this one. My current go too book on lichens is The Lichens of North America, which is huge. It’s about 8″x14″ and weights in around 4 pounds. It’s way too big and comprehensive to cart around in the field. This however is the perfect answer to a lichen book for Michigan and especially Ontario.
The book is slightly bigger than a North American bird field guide (it’s smaller than the Sibley guide). It’s a “soft” hard cover. It was written for Canadians and all of the maps reference Ontario, which is fine as the majority of species in western Ontario are also in Michigan. For use in Michigan the only species missing will be species which range south and west of the state.
One thing that bothers me is they have lumped the genera Cladonia and Cladina. They are now all Cladonia. The keys, however allow you to quickly locate all of the species that were once in Cladina, and the old names are listed in the synanyms.
For each species there are excellent descriptions, habitat notes and range maps. Also there are comments regarding similar species.
The book was C$49.95 or roughly US$40, so in my opinion a decent if not cheap price.
Michael's Place 